For a referendum in Tindouf

The Saharawi population confined in the camps of the Algerian Hamada, south of Tindouf, is nothing but a human tragedy. The political and propagandistic narrative on which they were built has been exhausted in favour of Saharan autonomy under the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Likewise, the Polisario's national-communist project, diluted in the Algerian expansionist, anti-capitalist, anti-monarchist and particularly anti-Moroccan programme, has died out without a hitch. Consequently, the population held in Tindouf has been and is a victim of the Polisario, which had its own plans, alien to the interests of the Saharawis whom it claims to represent through Algeria.

There were several Saharan liberation groups, namely the MLS (Sahara Liberation Movement, 1968), MOREHOB (Revolutionary Movement of Blue Men, 1969), the PUNS (Saharawi National Union Party, 1974) and the F.L.U. (Liberation and Unity Front, 1975).  The Polisario (Popular Front for the Liberation of Sakia al-Hamra and Rio de Oro, 1973) was formed in Morocco by mostly Moroccan leftist students. All these groups joined Morocco except Polisario, which was a parallel organisation, behind which Algeria camouflaged its pretensions.

The Polisario project was based on a communist-inspired text, which highlighted its ideology and alienation as follows: "The Polisario is going to cooperate with the Algerian revolution to defeat the manoeuvres plotted against the third world... Freedom is achieved with the rifle". This is how the Polisario, with the population taken hostage, threw itself into the lap of a satellite Algeria of the USSR, which claimed to be the bulwark of the liberation movements of the peoples, but incapable of liberating Kabylia, with its own language and culture, which is being repressed by the Algerian military.

The Polisario was hosted, financed and trained by Algeria, Gaddafi's Libya, Cuba, Venezuela and the USSR at the time. So Morocco has been fighting, for 16 years (1975-1991), against the communist bloc in all its glory. It should be noted that Algeria supported and sheltered ETA and the Canary Islands separatist Cubillo, head of the MPAIAC, who was allowed to broadcast his pro-independence propaganda from an Algerian radio station. For its part, the Polisario, in the 'political manifesto' of its 3rd Congress in 1976, described the Canaries as a 'military base of imperialism'.

The separatist Cubillo stated, from his exile in Algeria, that he would "use the territory of the Sahara in his armed struggle against the Canary Islands archipelago" (ABC, 26 February 1978). In turn, the Algerian military dictatorship would present the question of the 'decolonisation' of the Canary Islands to the Organisation of African Unity (today the African Union, AU). Morocco voted against this, declaring at the time, in 1978, that "the Canary Islands are an integral part of Spanish territory... and that it does not recognise Cubillo or his separatist organisation", while delegations from left-wing Spanish parties arrived in Algiers to commemorate the second anniversary of the Polisario Republic. It was in this context, and still from Algeria, that the Polisario would undertake its activities by attacking innocent civilians, viciously murdering and kidnapping Canary Island fishermen and workers at the Fosbucraa mine south of El Ayoun. The Canary Islands Association of Victims of Terrorism (ACAVITE) estimates Polisario's Spanish victims at 300, and claims that the perpetrators still roam free without trial.

In its early days, the Polisario was also interested in the Sahrawi soldiers recently discharged by the Spanish army for their struggle, and was very active in the kidnapping of the population. Any young man who did not join the front was kidnapped and imprisoned, as was the case of Mrabbih Rabbou Maoulainine, among many others. Their families had to leave their homes to join their hostage children in Tindouf and others were deceived. Later, in their skirmishes inside the Moroccan Sahara, the Polisario took whole Saharawi families as trophies in their retreat to be confined in the camps. The population was their trump card to sustain the narrative that Morocco is a colonising country (Ana de Palacio, former Spanish foreign minister - Atalayar, 19 March 2021).

While the Polisario has 1 million euro Russian tanks at its disposal, the Sahrawi population has been living in extreme poverty for more than 45 years. Moreover, they are forbidden to engage in any kind of economic activity that generates wealth and improves their situation, as this would be empowering for the individuals and legitimising their confinement. The motto of the Polisario, which claims to represent the Saharawis, is "the worse off the population, the better". Thus, the Saharawis continue to be deprived of the bare essentials for survival in a barren and inhospitable place, and in a deplorable state of malnutrition. All this is aggravated by the continued repression of the rebellions inside the camps. 

Significant aid from the UN, the European Commission's ECHO agency, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and numerous town councils, pro-Saharawi associations and autonomous communities throughout Spain is earmarked for this purpose, and yet the living conditions of the Saharawis remain appalling. Algeria and the Polisario claim there are between 150,000 and 170,000 Saharawis in confinement, while refusing an independent and definitive census. Neutral organisations estimate 70-90,000.

The UN urges both to carry out a real census and to make humanitarian aid conditional on it at a time when suspicions of fraud are being confirmed. Reports by OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud office, have demonstrated the existence of massive misappropriations of the aid granted. And Brussels is directly accusing Algiers of embezzlement.

It is undeniable that these camps had generated political advantages, initially managing to manipulate leftist public opinion in the midst of the Cold War. But that is water under the bridge. Today, it has been proven to be an instrument of political blackmail and a source of income. That is why the very abject principle for which they were created has been invalidated. Thus, the Polisario, itself a hostage of Algeria, has turned the free Saharawi nomads into men and women tied to a stake in the middle of nowhere, begging for international aid, while the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom are in full economic development and in need of its men and women. Provinces equipped with modern infrastructures thanks to the involvement of King Mohamed VI himself and the direct participation of the Saharawis themselves. In fact, the regents of the Sahara, mayors, provincial and regional governors are all Sahrawis. And many are returnees, including Polisario founders and former leaders.

The Sahara issue has been settled and the uncertainty of the Tindouf population has been removed.  Moreover, Polisario-Algerian claims are far outweighed by the new geostrategic dynamics opened up by Morocco on the African continent, where it is both actor and director. The geopolitical battle is thus being fought on the level of progress for African nations, human development as a brake on immigration and security in the face of terrorism, far from the retrograde anachronism of the Polisario and its mentor Algeria, which seek to destabilise the region.

The international community has a moral duty to put an end to this ordeal by urging Algeria and the Polisario to allow the Saharawis to return from Tindouf by opening a humanitarian corridor. Human Rights Watch had already warned that the population confined in Tindouf did not have full freedom of movement and was not allowed to leave the camps.

Could the UN mandate a mission for a referendum on the return of the Tindouf hostages? It is urgent to identify and census the population held there and to hold a referendum with a "YES" or "NO" vote on the return to the motherland.